One Million Wishes
by Unforgettable Green Eyes
Summary: Most wishes don't come true. But if you wish hard enough and often enough, one may. CloudXAeris. AU.
1. Fall

This piece was inspired by a quote from The Princess Bride. Guess which one? ;)

* * *

 **One Million Wishes**

 **~Fall~**

"Ohhh!" he breathed as he slowly spun around, staring up at the branches over his head. He could not take his eyes off of the leaves fluttering, swirling, twirling, red, gold, and yellow, like flames, raining down all over him. But they didn't burn when they brushed against him. They were soft, ticklish, and cold on his skin.

"Perhaps it's time for a change," his mother had said, her voice strangely thick the day she told him they were moving away. "And there is no better time to do it than now. Fall is the season for changes." She sniffed and forced a smile. "There are too many memories here. We can make a fresh start somewhere new."

Maybe this was what she had meant. It wasn't just the town of Nibelheim that was new. The house, the grass, even the air, everything felt new and fresh.

His foot hit a gnarled root sticking out of the ground and he took a tumble, landing on his back but the thick lawn and leaves cushioned his fall.

That was the first time he saw her.

Or heard her, really. A giggle in the row of bushes that separated their yard from the house next door alerted him to the fact that he wasn't alone. Bright green eyes blinked and came forward.

"Hi!" A girl with brown hair in pigtails and wearing the biggest and happiest smile he'd seen in a long time greeted merrily. She had on a green dress that matched her eyes. "Need some help?" she asked, offering her hand.

He cocked his head and after a moment, extended his hand timidly toward her.

"As you wish." She grinned and pulled him to his feet.

"Wh-what are you?"

"I think you mean, "Who are you?"" She laughed. That wasn't what he'd meant at all but he didn't mind her correcting him. "I'm Aeris. I'm your new neighbor! What's your name?"

"C-Cloud," he stammered.

"How old are you?"

"Five."

"I'm seven."

He scratched the back of his head, uncertain if he should respond.

"It's pretty, isn't it?" she chatted gaily. "The tree, I mean. The leaves."

"Y-yeah. I guess."

"They're prettiest in the fall so I always get a little sad when they start to drop," she said. "Still, it's one of my most favorite seasons." She laughed again. "But they're really all my favorite. Hey, do you want to go to the park? It's just down the street. There are a lot of pretty trees over there, just like this one."

"I can't. M-my mom told me to stay in the yard where she can see me."

"Oh." Her face fell for a split second, but immediately brightened again. "All right then. We can stay here and play. As you wish."

His ears perked up at the same words she'd used before and the emphasis she seemed to put on them.

"As you wish," he repeated.

"It means "Yes" or "Of course, you can have it your way." But my mom says it can also mean "I love you" if you say it to someone you love and are agreeing to do anything they want."

"Really?"

She nodded. She was so pretty and smart, he couldn't help but be in awe of her.

On that first day they met, he learned they had several things in common. Like him, she was an only child who lived alone with her mother. And like him, her father had passed away. Unlike him, she'd lost her father when she was a baby so she never really got to know him. He felt sorry for her that she couldn't remember him at all.

"My dad..." Something in his chest tightened at the thought of his own father. "My mom says my dad didn't want to go, but he had to. But one day, we'll see him again."

Her brow puckered. "You know what I like to do?" She gestured to the leaves on the ground.

"What?" he asked, curious.

"Make leaf angels. It's a lot of fun."

He didn't know what they were so she showed him how to scoop and shove the leaves into piles then stand up and with both arms flung wide open, flop backwards onto the leaves. A small smile stole across his face as he moved his arms up and down in wide arcs and opened and closed his legs as she had taught him. The figures they made didn't look much like angels but he didn't care. It _was_ fun.

They were lying on their backs staring up at the branches overhead from their respective leaf angels when another face popped into their line of vision, blocking the tree.

"Well, hello there," the woman said pleasantly, standing over them. "And what have we got here?"

"Hello!" Aeris chirped. "You must be Cloud's mother. I'm Aeris. I live next door."

"Aeris, hmm? That's a lovely name." She smiled. "Yes, I'm Cloud's mother, Mrs. Strife. And you must be his new friend."

"Yep, I'm his new friend." She sat up on the grass and he did the same. Her eyes darted back and forth between the tall, blond woman and him. "Cloud has your eyes."

He frowned. Maybe she didn't know her colors yet.

"Cloud has blue eyes like his father," his mother explained, "but he has my hair. Sort of," she amended with a chuckle as her eyes touched upon the pointed ends of his hair.

Aeris tilted her head to one side, considering them quietly. "But the sadness in his eyes is just like yours."

His mother's smile slipped for a moment as she gazed at him and her face turned somber. "You're right." There was a catch in her voice. "You know what, darling?" She bent down and gently ruffled his hair. "I think moving here was a good change for us. I have a feeling we're going to like our new home."

He didn't think he was going to like it. He knew it.

"Well, it's time for Cloud to come in for lunch. And since you're his friend, we would like to have you join us. We're just moving in today so you'll have to excuse the boxes everywhere. The house is a terrible mess at the moment."

Aeris turned to him with a grin that stretched from ear to ear. He felt warmth creep up his neck and an answering smile spread across his own face.

"Thank you," she said politely. "I'd like that. I just have to go ask my mom first."

He looked up, first at his mother then at their new neighbor. "As you wish," he said, his voice grave.

"As you wish?" His mother gave him a quizzical glance.

"It means "Yes" and "I love you"," he informed her, proud of what he'd learned.

"Oh?" A soft giggle at her elbow had her eyes widening. "I see," she murmured, and there was something in her voice that was almost sad. "You're just like your father. You wear your heart on your sleeve."

Later, when it was getting dark and his mother called him to come inside the house, Aeris reached out and took his hand.

"I never asked but..." Her face was serious. "Will you be my friend, Cloud?"

He stared at her, wide-eyed. No one had ever wanted to be friends with him before.

"As you wish," he said shyly.

"Tell you what." She beamed and leaned forward to whisper, "I'll always take care of you, Cloud. I'll always love you."

He looked into her eyes and saw that she spoke the truth.

An angel, he thought.

That was what she was. She was his angel.

"As you wish," he said again. But he didn't mean just "Yes." He meant "I love you."

For the rest of his life, he knew he would never love anyone else like he loved her.

He learned his first lesson in love—the innocence and purity of youth and young love, and that he would never know again.


	2. Winter

**One Million Wishes**

 **~Winter~**

Thousands of leaf angels later, Aeris would rush to the nearby elementary school to meet him on the school's front lawn after classes let out each day. She now attended the Nibelheim Junior & Senior High School and had her own group of friends but it didn't stop her from walking him home every day. Sometimes her friends would tag along with her to pick him up from school and accompany them part of the way home. They thought he was adorable and his obvious crush on her both sweet and a cause for great humor.

"How cute," they would laugh upon seeing his face light up each time he saw her coming up the sidewalk.

It was winter in Nibelheim but as far as he was concerned, the sun was shining and it was bright and warm whenever he saw her face.

One early evening found him on his hands and knees in the park surrounded by mounds of snow. The ground was frozen and his fingers were so numb, he didn't feel the ice sting or the bite of the wind as he dug tirelessly through the layers of snow until he found what he was looking for.

He hurried home and was met by the sight of his mother in her scrubs, pacing up and down in the living room. Sitting on the sofa, watching her wear out the carpet, was Aeris.

"Cloud!" His mother looked both relieved and agitated at his appearance. "Where in heavens have you been? Where are your jacket and gloves? Why are you all wet? You're going to catch a cold!"

She didn't wait for an answer but quickly went on to explain that she had been called in for a late shift at the hospital where she worked as a phlebotomist and at first he was too busy trying to stash what he had in his dirt-encrusted hands into the pocket of his equally dirty pants to hear what she was saying and then the rest of her words hit him. Heat rushed to his face and there was a roaring in his ears.

"Mom!"

She stopped, surprised to see him yelling. On the couch, Aeris was also staring at him with wide eyes.

His face burned even hotter. "I don't need a baby-sitter! I'm eleven years old! I can take care of myself."

"Now, sweetie, Aeris is not your baby-sitter. I just asked her to stay with you for a bit so you won't be home by yourself tonight."

"She's only two years older than me," he insisted. "She can't baby-sit me."

"I already told you she's not baby-sitting you," she replied. "I can't leave you all alone overnight, but Aunt Lavinia's out of town visiting her grandchildren. Mrs. Gainsborough offered to have you go over to their place but I don't want you there causing her more stress while she's down with the flu."

Aunt Lavinia was not really his aunt but the kind, elderly woman that lived across the street who usually kept an eye on him while his mother was at work. That left Aeris who she stated was one of the very few people she trusted to watch over him.

"You two are so close," she said. "I thought you'd be happy. And this is the perfect opportunity for you to ask her for some help with your homework. Mrs. Gainsborough said Aeris received the top marks in her class again this year."

He gnashed his teeth. "I do _not_ need help with my homework."

Sure, his grades weren't the best but they were respectable. Mostly. Besides, where it really mattered was his love of swordplay and his fencing instructors claimed he was a natural. More than a natural. He was gifted. According to them, he would be a perfect candidate someday for the elite SOLDIER program at Shinra Inc., the latter itself being the country's premier supplier of military force, renowned for recruiting and training some of the most famous soldiers in history.

"Please, Cloud. I don't have time to argue with you right now. This is just for tonight. Aunt Lavinia will be home in a few days and everything will be back to normal. Now hurry up and go change your clothes. Dinner's in the fridge, corned beef, potatoes and—"

"I'm not hungry," he said sullenly.

His mother pursed her lips but didn't press the issue.

She could slice it anyway she wanted, they all knew the truth: Aeris was his baby-sitter.

"I apologize for my son's outburst, Aeris. He's young and doesn't have a filter yet. He says what he thinks and can't hide what he feels."

"It's okay, Mrs. Strife. I understand." Aeris was smiling like an angel. "I've always liked that about him."

He stormed up the stairs before his mother could think to kiss him good-night in front of her and locked himself in his room.

A few minutes later there was a soft knock on his door.

"Can I come in? Your mom's gone."

Into his room? he thought. At their age, that was inappropriate now, wasn't it?

He glanced at his bed where he'd been having uncomfortable dreams of her lately and flushed. No way did he want her seeing his bed and guessing what happened there.

He opened his mouth, only to snap it shut again.

"I can't hear you, Cloud," she sang through the door.

With a sigh, he went across the room and opened the door just a crack so he could peer out and looked up into bright green eyes dancing with mischief. He didn't say a word, simply lifted a brow at her and quickly closed the door again as she tried to shove it open.

Luckily for him, he was stronger than her despite his smaller build.

"Cloud!" She pounded on the door. "Let me in!"

His victory was clearly going to be short. She wasn't going to let up.

After a couple of minutes, he opened the door again.

Aeris crossed her arms over her chest. "Done being mad now?" Before he could answer, she continued, "I want to show you something. Will you come outside with me?"

"As you wish."

" _Now_ you say that," she chuckled and shook her head.

Outside, their breaths fogged the frigid night air as she led him around to the side of the house.

"See that?" She pointed to the new wooden structure attached to the house, her eyes twinkling in the night. "Do you think we can climb it to the rooftop?"

It appeared sturdier than most as far as lattices went, but he held back, worried her mother might see them outside their window and they'd be in trouble.

"Don't be silly," she chided. "She's resting in her bed and her room's on the other side. And it wouldn't matter anyway if she did see us. My mom loves you. You can do no wrong in her eyes."

He opened his mouth to retort that he would prefer to keep things that way but she was already climbing up the framework and so he followed her as he always did. They cleared some snow off of the roof and sat down, listening to the thick silence and marveling at how the neighborhood looked and felt completely different and new with everything blanketed in white. A light snowfall had begun, big, fluffy flakes of ice that drifted down slowly all around them, and the bright moon and stillness of the night made it seem like they were the only two people in the world.

"Isn't it lovely up here?" She lifted her face to the sky and breathed deeply. "Everything's so bright! We don't even need the lights tonight."

She was right. The moon was a luminous circle, its light reflected so intensely by the pure white snow, they could see each other almost as well as if it was daytime.

"Oh, Cloud, look! There's a star! We should make a wish!"

He frowned. "I think it's supposed to be a shooting star that you wish on."

"You can wish on a shooting star or the first star out. This is the only star in the sky so it's even more special. Let's make a wish on it!" She glanced back up at the star and the look on her face turned dreamy. "I wish to find happiness with my one true love," she said fervently, only to spoil the seriousness with a giggle. "Okay, your turn to make a wish."

His eyes remained on her as he made his wish silently.

She shot him a look of exasperation. "You're not going to keep it a secret from me, are you, Cloud? You have to tell me!"

He could never deny her anything so he gave in without a fight.

As she sat, looking at him with eyes that told him everything he needed to know, he slipped his hand inside his pocket.

"Here." He thrust his hand back out. "I found this in the park." He'd seen it popping out of the snow about a week ago before the latest snowstorm had buried it again—small, dainty, graceful and almost as beautiful as she was. "Happy birthday, Aeris."

She gasped.

Her birthday had really been that past weekend but she didn't seem to care that he was late with his gift. Her eyes were fixed on the delicate pearlescent ivory flower that crowned the slender green stalk, hardier than its frail appearance would have one believe.

"I didn't forget your birthday," he tried to explain. "I just didn't know what to get—"

His breath came out in a whoosh as she threw herself at him, nearly knocking them both off of the roof. "I know you didn't."

She hugged him fiercely and pulled back to take the flower from him. It was just a flower, but her eyes were shining as if he'd given her the moon and the stars.

He was glad for that night and other such moments for despite what his mother had said, it was only the first of many occasions when Aeris was asked to look after him. Aunt Lavinia was getting older and her children wanted her closer to them so not long after that night, she moved away to live with her son and his family.

Once everyone at school found out his new baby-sitter was none other than his crush who also happened to live next door to him, the jokes became almost unbearable. For the remainder of the school year and the following year, he could barely hold his head up among his peers in class and couldn't wait for elementary school to be over. Besides, the Junior & Senior High School was where Aeris was at and he would be able to see her a lot more there.

He learned the lesson of passion. And that there was more than one kind of passion—the crazy, wild, out-of-control heat and blood rush brought on by thoughts of her, and the stanch, resolute grip his love for her took on in the face of the mortifying embarrassment and humiliation that his classmates' taunts and ridicule could make him feel.


	3. Spring

**One Million Wishes**

 **~Spring~**

Spring came again, bringing rain and life to Nibelheim. It also brought love for Aeris.

Everything was green and alive outside but in the halls of Nibelheim Junior & Senior High School, love was in the air as boys and girls rushing from one class to the next were met by the sight and smell of flowers and candy spilling out of their lockers or were stashing them in another student's desk.

He was fourteen and in his second year at the school when a new student arrived, a boy with jet black hair, piercing brown eyes, and a tall, well-built physique. The boy was a year ahead of Aeris and had the mystifying ability to make every girl's face turn pink and send them into fits of nervous giggles whenever he passed them in the hallway. Worse, he was one of the smartest students at the school and he was at the top of his class. Despite a cool, almost arrogant public persona, he quickly became a favorite of every staff member, including teachers who didn't even have him in their class, and the entire student body adored him.

He watched with a sinking heart as Aeris would smile and blush whenever the older boy glanced her way.

"Aeris!" Her friends squealed, flocking around her at her locker. "Did you see that? He was totally checking you out! He likes you!"

"Do you think so?" she asked, her voice breathless.

"Are you kidding? That look he just gave you? We almost caught on fire just standing next to you! You saw that, didn't you, Cloud?"

Standing a few feet away from the group near the opposite wall, he gave an inward groan and stuck his head deeper into his own locker.

A couple of days later, he saw the brunette he loved walking down the hallway with an extravagant bouquet of flowers that left no doubt in his mind who they were from. His unhappiness was further compounded by the sight of the new silk ribbon she wore in her hair that matched the color of the expensive-looking vase of pink roses.

Soon they were the most popular couple in school, seldom seen apart between classes, holding hands in the halls or gazing into one another's eyes at their lunch table, and Aeris blossomed like a flower under the new boy's attention and grew only more lovely with each passing day.

As the two of them became increasingly joined at the hip, the more he withdrew, retreating further and further into his own shell. He had always been a loner but Aeris had kept him from being a complete outcast, oftentimes dragging him along when she hung out with her friends, who mostly tolerated his strange, silent presence for her sake, and she provided all the companionship he needed. Caught up in her own happiness, she seemed blissfully unaware of his growing absence from the fringe of the crowd that always surrounded her but every now and then she would look up and around, and spying him in some corner or other, smile at him.

Sometimes she would catch him watching them and she'd wave him over, trying to bring him into her circle of friends.

"Hey, Cloud," she'd say if they ran into him after school before he could make his escape. "Do you want to walk home with Tseng and me?"

Not on your life! he'd want to shout.

After an awkward silence, he would force himself to look at her and find her smiling up at him, incognizant of the turmoil inside of him. He'd outgrown her sometime in the last year to top her by a few inches, but it was obvious by now that he had not been fortunate enough to take after his mother in the height department. Unless he hit another growth spurt, he would likely never be as tall as the boy beside her who, at seventeen years old, already stood six feet tall.

Those green eyes of hers would meet his and not only could he not refuse, what he'd see in them would make everything even harder. Deep inside, he'd feel a spark of anger and impatience with her. A part of him wanted to shake her.

 _How_ could she not know? _He_ knew, as did his mother and her mother.

He would duck his head, breaking their eye contact.

"As you wish," he'd mumble to the ground, his voice barely audible.

Tseng's lips would quirk up slightly at the corner, having been filled in on their history by Aeris and knew the reason he always responded with that particular line. He was a stern, solemn young man whose no-nonsense demeanor would disappear in the blink of an eye when he wanted it to and he had no trouble fitting in with any crowd or joking around with the silliest of the lot. Confident, handsome, sophisticated and quick-witted, he led a charmed existence most people could only dream of and yet somehow, he was infinitely likable. Even he could find no fault with Tseng who, in turn, had a soft spot for his girlfriend's former baby-sitting charge. In fact, the older student liked him so much, he even tried to get him to go out on double dates with them, and was utterly astounded when he would flat out reject the idea. It boggled his brilliant mind that a teenage boy who was clearly straight could really have no interest whatsoever in girls.

"I don't see the problem." Tseng's eyes narrowed, slanting further, emphasizing the exotic features inherited from his mother who had been a world-famous actress, including his sleek black hair that he wore tied back in a ponytail. "She's rather bright, nice and very pretty, and she thinks you're hot. Her words, not mine. She asked me to set you up with her because Aeris wouldn't."

"Tseng," Aeris admonished him. "These things should happen on their own. Don't try to force it."

"I'm just trying to help your old friend out here." He gave a careless shrug. "There's a lot more to life than sparring with a sword, Cloud. If you ever find yourself curious about dating or girls or any other aspect of life, for that matter, I would be glad to offer you some advice."

He simply kept his eyes on the pavement and his feet moving.

Her friends weren't much better. On the rare occasions he found himself in the group's company, he was subjected to their incessant giggles and chatter about Aeris and Tseng's dates or endless ravings about how the two of them were the best couple in the school.

Once in a while, one of the girls would glance over at him and say with a sly grin, "But I think Aeris and Cloud would make the perfect couple."

His face would flush as he tried to pretend that he hadn't heard the remark and Aeris would laugh, a faint rosy blush staining her cheeks, while Tseng merely chuckled like it was all just a big joke.

"Can't say I blame you," he'd smirk, shooting him a look of pity before turning to give the most beautiful girl in school hanging on his arm a rare smile. "You have impeccable taste."

With Tseng becoming the center of her attention more and more, he turned to his only other passion in life: sword fighting. He didn't just excel in that arena. He owned it. It was the one thing he was not a failure at. It didn't hurt that the only person who could give him any real challenge, but had never bested him again after their first match in class, was Tseng. No one else could touch him.

He channeled all of his frustration into his exercises and duels with so much energy and focus, he wore himself out at the end of each day while the rest of the class stood back, in awe of his newfound skills and with more than just a little bit of fear. Only the top students, who were all older than him, would dare to spar with him and even they found themselves disarmed of their weapons within minutes, if not seconds, after the whistle blew and he had launched himself at them. On the sidelines, their instructors watched with admiration. And concern.

"Cloud," an instructor pulled him aside one day to say. "Your swordsmanship is far above anything we've ever seen and maybe even superior to some of the best SOLDIERs that have come out of the army. Do us all a favor and try not to get yourself killed before you even make it to Shinra. SOLDIER could use someone like you."

His classmates had mostly cut back on teasing him about his crush on his neighbor, partly due to maturity but mainly out of respect for the reputation he had earned with a sword. The girls cast looks his way and some were even bold enough to ask him out, but he turned them all down. The only girl he was interested in was seeing another boy and did not think of him as anything more than a friend.

At home, his mother noticed his melancholy and that Aeris's presence had declined considerably around the house. She alone knew his misery.

"Darling." Her statuesque reflection appeared behind him in the window as he sat at his desk, his homework untouched, staring at the dark house next door long after Aeris had left on her date. "You wear your heart on your sleeve and she's too young to appreciate that right now. But one day, she will. I have faith in her." She brushed back the blond spikes of his hair and leaned down to lay a kiss on top of his head. "Don't ever change."

He learned the worst lesson of all—the agony of unrequited love.


	4. Summer

**One Million Wishes**

 **~Summer~**

The summer following Aeris's eighteenth birthday, she graduated from Nibelheim Junior & Senior High School and followed through on her plans to attend college in Midgar to pursue her dreams of becoming a horticulturist. And, in order to be closer to Tseng.

"I'll be able to see him more frequently," she confided with a smile, and he could tell by the faraway look in her eyes that she was already someplace else. The stifling heat of Nibelheim's midday had cooled slightly and above their heads, the stars lit up the evening sky like fireworks, the brightest it had been all year long, but the magnificence of the stars was wasted on her.

He couldn't blame her.

She was a vision sitting beside him on his rooftop, lost in her own thoughts, oblivious to the most astounding display of nature above her and the eyes observing her with all the adoration the world had to offer.

Watching her, his heart ached. The beauty of the night was no match for hers. Her long, silky brown hair gleamed in the darkness with a light of its own, the brightest stars pale next to her eyes. Her cheeks were slightly flushed from their afternoon spent at the lake, providing a perfect complement to the pink bikini she still had on and adding to her appeal. She had her knees pulled to her chest and her arms wrapped around them, as comfortable and relaxed with him in her two-piece swimsuit as he was in his board shorts with her.

She'd become more withdrawn in recent months, quieter, as her high school days were coming to a close and he'd figured she had a lot on her mind and was contemplating her future, but he hadn't guessed at the bigger picture and what it entailed. Or who, precisely.

Although it had never been confirmed, it was widely speculated that Tseng had been recruited as an undercover operative by a private corporation upon his own graduation the previous year. If there were any truth to the rumors, the job clearly didn't last long as Aeris told him Tseng was working for the Investigations Sector branch of Shinra Inc. only a few months later. While with the department, he found firearms suited him more than swords and proving himself to be an exceptional student who exceeded all expectations, quickly obtained the rank of TURK, a position that took most people years of experience and education to achieve. His fast climb came as no surprise to anyone who had attended Nibelheim Junior & Senior High School with him. His job took him all over the world, but Midgar was the biggest city and the capital of the country, and was therefore the base of Shinra Inc.'s operations and where he was currently stationed.

"It'll be a big change," she mused on that hot afternoon, waiting for her train to Midgar with him beside her on the bench to see her off. As excited as she was, she still had her moments of anxiety, although they were few and far between. "Things will be different. But I hope I'll be able to make it."

"You will," he said confidently. "You're strong. You have nothing to worry about."

"Of course you'd say that." She wrinkled her pert nose. "You believe I can do anything."

"It's the truth."

It _was_ true. Aside from her beauty, she was intelligent, courageous and kind, all qualities that would take her far, whatever she chose to do. The transition from high school to college and being out on her own would be challenging but he had no doubt she would succeed. She was that rare flower that could bloom anywhere, even in the harshest conditions, like the snowdrop he'd given her one wintry night years ago.

Reaching up, she slipped her arms around his neck and squeezed him gently. "I love you, Cloud," she whispered, her warm breath stirring the hair behind his ear as she let out a heartfelt sigh. She never meant the words the way he wanted, but it was something.

She pulled back and gave him a grateful smile, but he had the distinct impression that her thoughts were elsewhere again.

He studied her face, trying to commit every feature to memory because he knew that the next time he saw her, she would no longer be the same girl sitting next to him now. Midgar would change her. Life would change her.

"Cloud," she said, her voice quiet. "You will come and visit me, right?"

Would you care if I didn't? he found himself wondering. Would you even notice?

As if she was reading his thoughts, Aeris's smile wobbled a bit and the look on her face turned wistful. He finally had her full attention.

"You're my best friend, Cloud. Sometimes, I think you're my only real friend."

The statement confounded him, the loneliness in her voice even more so. She drew people to her like a flower attracted bees and always had a fawning audience flanking both her sides at school. He knew she considered him her friend, but on her part, she also had to know how he really felt about her. He had never made a secret of it and her friends teased him about it often enough although she usually brushed it off with a laugh.

"It means more to me than you know," she said softly.

The words gave him hope, in spite of everything. The look in her eyes reinforced it.

"As you wish," he murmured.

She smiled with relief, but her green eyes were serious. "There's something I need to tell you."

And her next sentence killed that hope more effectively than a knife to his heart, forever.

Years of crushing defeat and heartbreak probably should have made it easier but it didn't. Not in the least bit.

It was the first time since the day they had met in his front yard as children that his verbal response to any simple "yes" or "no" question she asked of him was something other than his customary answer.

"Be happy, Aeris," he whispered hoarsely instead, as he had wished for her that snowy night on the roof of his house long ago, and picking himself up from the bench, or what remained of his shattered self and ego anyway, he did something he had never thought he would do, not if he'd lived a million years.

He turned his back on her and walked away.

He walked out of her life.

The sound of his name followed him in the noisy hubbub of the crowded station but for the first time in his life, he ignored her call.

Much later, when he saw her name and heard her voice on his cell phone, he erased the voicemail without listening to the entire message and then went and got himself a new phone and number.

But the glittering diamond on her left hand was an image in his mind that he could not leave behind with her on the train's platform, a nightmare that haunted him, even when he was awake.

That day was only to be the start of a series of many firsts for him.

The day after she left Nibelheim, he dropped out of school and left home to enlist in SOLDIER. His mother's tearful protests and her mother's pleas fell on deaf ears as he packed his bag with a resolve he had never known existed within him.

"Aeris doesn't know." Mrs. Gainsborough wrung her hands. "She still doesn't understand. She hasn't realized her own feelings. Don't punish yourself for my daughter's foolishness."

"How did it go so terribly wrong?" His mother asked, of no one in particular, a dazed look on her face where she sat on his bed. "This can't be happening."

But it _was_ happening. They had all been wrong. _He_ had been wrong. So completely and utterly wrong.

The only one who had been a fool had been him.

Even so, his only regret was that he had disappointed his mother.

"Let me make this clear." Angry tears glistened in her eyes as she watched him walk out of the room. "You will never be a disappointment to me."

It was time to lay to rest feelings that had never been returned. It was time to let the flames he'd nurtured and kept alive for so long die.

Or else he would.

It was time to live for himself.

As extreme as it seemed, he knew he had to make a clean break and cut all ties with the girl he had loved since childhood if he was to save himself. And somewhere, somehow, he found the strength and the will to do so.

The years that followed was a period of his life that taught him some of the most painful lessons he would ever have to go through—lessons about losing love and how hard it was to get over it and move on. And even though he would eventually learn to live without her, he also learned that some heartaches never fully went away and time didn't necessarily heal all wounds.


	5. Fall (Coming Home)

**One Million Wishes**

 **~Fall (Coming Home)~**

Nibelheim was burning.

He stood under a tree on a rise in the park, watching his hometown burn in the loveliest colors of fall. Deep amber and molten lava entwined and danced together under the last rays of the setting sun, undaunted by the gray clouds moving in.

Not far down the street he could see his mother's house. Where he'd first met an angel.

An angel who had broken his heart at every possible turn.

Coming back home in broad daylight had been a mistake. He understood all too well why his mother had wanted to move to another town after his father had died all those years ago. There were too many memories, too many ghosts, and they had nowhere to hide in the cold, stark light of day. Even with the sun hidden behind clouds, daytime revealed everything with painful clarity, highlighting the worst parts in excruciating detail.

For the past seven years he had only dropped in occasionally in the night if he was on a mission somewhere nearby to check on his mother and leaving shortly after. He never called, never gave notice, just came and went, and if she was working, he would wait around as long as he could until the memories got the best of him and he'd leave, sometimes without even seeing her. Once or twice, he'd thought he'd heard a voice from the past calling after him as his bike roared away in the night but he was getting the hang of tuning it out now.

As if from a distance, he heard the pitter-patter of scattered raindrops on the leaves over his head and was vaguely aware of a few drops landing here and there on his bare arms. Leaves rustled behind him but his augmented SOLDIER senses detected no threat and so he ignored it, immersed in his thoughts.

"Cloud."

He'd heard her voice in his dreams for so long and to hear it now, so achingly familiar, and yet different from how he'd imagined it, seemed almost surreal. The last time he'd heard her voice had been on his voicemail:

 _"Cloud, where are you? I miss you—"_

He braced himself and slowly turned around. And still, it hit him like a ton of bricks, the sight of her, her eyes greener than the grass in spring, her full lips red from the cold, her brown hair loose and cascading down to her waist, starting to cling wetly to her in the drizzle that had begun and was getting heavier by the minute, wearing a simple white blouse and a forest green knee-length skirt.

Her voice had changed, _she_ had changed, but she was still the girl he had loved for the better part of his twenty-three years.

At her inquiry, he could only nod stiffly and say that he was doing well.

He thought she looked well, too. No, she looked beautiful, in spite of the fact that her hair had begun to frizz in the rain and her clothes were getting soaked. The chilly weather heightened the rosy blush on her cheeks and creamy alabaster of her skin, and her skirt brought out the green of her eyes. She wasn't carrying an umbrella, he realized. Her eyes were also red around the rims and there were dark circles under them as if she was in need of a good night's rest. He was older now, a man. Time had tempered him and cooled the more volatile nature of the boy he'd been and he could now see her without the rose-colored glasses that had always tinted his perception of her and made her flawless.

Still, his memories of her had not been false.

He had looked for her in every other face he'd met along the way but no one had ever come close. If a girl didn't have brown hair or green eyes, they were the wrong color. If she did have green eyes, they lacked a certain luster and vibrancy, and were missing the sparkle hers had. If her hair was brown, it was a shade off or too dull-looking and didn't seem to have a life of its own. If she laughed, her laughter was too raucous, too loud, or too shrill and hurt his ears. If she was mild-mannered and pensive, he had to fight the urge to shake her and see if she was still breathing. No one else had a smile that could light him up inside and fill him with warmth, a voice that could lift his mood and make his heart pound, or a touch that could make his blood pump for all the wrong, and the right, reasons.

"I..." He heard her voice catch.

He looked questioningly back at her.

She wrapped her arms around herself and tried to suppress a shiver. "Have I left it too late? Have I truly lost you forever?"

His body tensed. He must have misheard her.

"Can you ever forgive me?"

For what? he wondered. For not loving him? For loving someone else? Marrying another man? In his mind, he'd pictured her and Tseng married and living elsewhere with a bunch of kids, perhaps in Midgar which was why he avoided the city like the plague and always signed onto missions that would take him as far away from headquarters as possible. Not once had it occurred to him that she might be back in Nibelheim, of all places.

The truth was there was nothing she needed to ask his forgiveness for. He knew that and the one thing he had never been able to do was lie to himself or to her. Something flared in her eyes at his answer and he could have kicked himself for the sudden spark of hope that leaped in his chest.

He couldn't do this again.

"I have to go," he said quickly.

"Cloud—" Tears welled in her eyes and he could almost believe that it was pain he saw in their bright green depths.

He nodded curtly and turned to walk away as he had done once before.

"As you wish." Her voice was barely a whisper at his back but the old anguish shot through his body like an electric bolt at the sound and her choice of words.

He kept walking.

"As you wish." The words came again, louder.

He didn't break his stride.

"As you wish!"

He closed his eyes and fought it, but he had to look back and saw her, fallen to her knees in the wet grass, weeping.

Pivoting on his heels, he broke into a run and got down in front of her.

"Aeris." It had been years since her name had passed his lips but they had never forgotten the feel of it. He caught her narrow shoulders, felt her entire body shaking with the force of her sobs as he tucked a finger under her chin and tilted her face up. Tears flowed unchecked down her cheeks and he ached to take her in his arms and brush them away, but there was no way he would be able to let her go again if he did. "Don't do this to yourself."

She only cried harder as she grabbed his hand and clutched it to her chest. "Please," she whispered. "Please, Cloud."

"What do you want from me?" he asked helplessly.

"Just-just hear me out," she begged. "Just listen, please! And then, i-if you still want to go... If you can't forgive me...I-I'll understand."

He nodded and waited, his body painfully rigid, until the tears subsided enough and she could talk.

"I've been so blind," she began hoarsely after what seemed like an unbearably long wait. "So incredibly stupid. Your mom and my mom, my friends, _everyone_ , they've all told me I've been a fool. But they don't know the half of it. They don't know how much...or _how_...I hurt you."

Despite himself, there was a flutter again somewhere in the vicinity of his chest and his heart pounded. What was she saying?

"You were the little boy who looked at me with the biggest, saddest eyes in the world when we first met and all I knew was I wanted to protect you forever. As we got older, I thought...this couldn't be right. I convinced myself I couldn't be feeling what I was feeling. What you so clearly wanted me to feel. You were my best friend, who was always there. But then... Suddenly, you weren't there anymore. I was supposed to be happy and planning my wedding, but all I could see was your face. You weren't there but I still saw you. I _wanted_ to see you." She trembled and her eyes caressed his stunned face, filling with fresh tears. "I wanted to see you so badly. All I could think about was you. I looked at the man I was about to marry and everything was just wrong. The man I truly wanted to spend the rest of my life with was the boy I'd grown up with, my best friend, who had always loved me and who I thought would always be by my side, and nothing else mattered but you. I broke off my engagement and left to find you. So I could tell you, "I love you."" Her voice broke. "I always have."

He heard the words but it was as if they were all jumbled together and held no context or meaning. He couldn't speak, couldn't react, could only try to take everything in and hope to make some sense of what was happening.

"Cloud." Her breath shuddered and her eyes lifted to his. "I love you."

It took some effort but he found his voice. "Why did you wait so long to tell me this? Why now, after all this time?"

She laughed, and cried. "I _have_ told you, so many times over the years. But you wouldn't return my calls and my letters were all sent back unopened. I've been searching everywhere for you but you never stay in one place. I even contacted Shinra even though I knew they wouldn't tell me anything. So, out of desperation, I came back to Nibelheim because your mother was here. She tried to help me, but every time I got a call from her, I would rush over only to find I was too late and you were already gone."

His mother? For years she had been insisting that he come home for a real visit but he would never stay. Whatever her feelings on the matter were, she had respected her son's wish not to mention their former neighbor in his presence. The one time she'd let her name drop in conversation, he had gotten up quietly and left with the girl he'd brought home to meet her, and didn't return for months. The next time he came back, he was alone again. And silent. His mother hadn't said anything, only looked at him with sad eyes.

"You always did wear your heart on your sleeve," she'd said once as he was on his way out the door, just minutes after he had arrived.

He closed his arms carefully around her, trembling, not with the cold but at the revelation of her feelings. She shivered and clung to him, her slight frame fitting against his perfectly. For a long time, there was only the sound of the rain falling steadily on the leaves and grass as they held each other, savoring the moment and the feel of one another.

At length she stirred in his arms.

"C-can you stay?" There was a tremor in her voice. " _Will_ you stay?"

"As you wish."

Her eyes widened and she suddenly burst into another bout of tears and buried her face against his chest. "I was so afraid I would never hear you say that to me again," she wept.

"I will say it every day if you want me to."

"Cloud." She sniffed and touched her fingers to his cheek wonderingly. "I've missed you so much."

He stared down at her and it didn't matter that her face was stained with tears and splotchy from crying, her eyes were puffy, and her nose was red. She was still more beautiful than anything to him. She was an angel.

And she was finally his.

Her lips parted, forming again the words he'd been waiting all his life to hear, the meaning behind them just as he had wished for so long, a whisper that he felt in his bones and echoing in the deepest chambers of his heart.

He bent his head as she pressed herself against him and lifted her face to his. At the first touch of his lips on hers, she melted in his arms. Softly, reverently, he kissed her. She squirmed, trying to get even closer and returned his kiss with a fervor that stole his breath and every muscle in his body tightened in response. Everything he'd locked away inside of him, all his pent-up feelings for her, seemed to burst out into the open and the kiss exploded into much more.

Long minutes later, he lifted his head and stared down at her. Her heart hammered fiercely against his, her small body nothing but heat despite the cold, and her eyes burned dark, blazing with desire and more passion than he'd ever dared to hope for. He couldn't have imagined such fire, not even during his wildest dreams of her in his adolescence. And more.

In her eyes were tenderness and devotion and...love.

He had adored her eyes from the very start. The endless pools of green reflected everything inside of her, all her thoughts and emotions. He had always known how she really felt about him, even when she hadn't.

He wore his heart on his sleeve, but she carried her heart in her eyes.

"I..." She looked breathlessly up at him. "I didn't know it could be like this. If only I had."

"I did," he said simply.

She gasped his name and pulled him down for another deep, searing kiss.

Fall was the season when the trees turned and the leaves fell, and when he first fell headfirst with them, hard, into a love that would never let him go no matter how far he tried to run. And it was fall when his life finally turned around and he found out she had fallen for him, too.

It was also fall when he learned his final, and most wonderful, lesson in love—a love that was true and lasting. More importantly, it was a love that was returned. He knew it was a lesson that wouldn't stop there but one that he would continue to learn and live each day.

They had come full circle.

And he had come home.

* * *

 **Note:** Well, there you have it! To the readers who left comments about wanting a happy ending for Cloud and Aeris, this chapter's for you. I sincerely hope the conclusion lived up to your expectations. :) However, fair warning, I think I _would_ like to write a Cloud and Aeris story with a sad ending someday but today is not the day. I think a story inspired by The Princess Bride (okay, just basically one quote but still) would be quite shocking to end any other way but happily.

I would also like to thank all the wonderful readers who left feedback and have been so kind, supportive, and respectful of my writing and the story itself in their reviews. Your comments and opinions matter more than you might think and you are the ones who gave me the encouragement and the push to finish this story. I am eternally grateful and so happy to be a part of this amazing fandom.


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